Prosecutors want new appeals brief in Pitino case

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The woman convicted of trying to extortUniversity of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino should berequired to file a new appellate brief because her last filinglacks factual and legal grounding, federal prosecutors saidThursday. In a motion, Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Hill asked the U.S.6th Circuit Court of Appeals to require 51-year-old Karen CunaginSypher's lawyers to file a new brief. In the motion, Hill said thebrief filed by attorney David Brian Nolan doesn't include legalcitations or references to the trial record to back up her claimsthat her attorney was ineffective and contains repeated errors. "Instead, she provides a biased narrative containing only hercharacterization of the events surrounding her criminal trial,without support of any evidentiary value," Hill wrote. In 2010, a jury convicted Sypher of extortion, lying to the FBIand retaliation against a witness. Prosecutors said she soughtmillions in cash, cars and a house from Pitino to stay quiet abouta tryst in a Louisville restaurant. She is serving a seven-yearsentence at a federal prison in Marianna, Fla. In her appeal, Sypher claims a broad conspiracy involvingPitino, the federal trial judge and Sypher's former attorney toensure she would be found guilty. Nolan called the conviction a "disastrous injustice." While the appeal raises multiple issues, nearly all have beenpreviously rejected by law enforcement and U.S. District JudgeCharles Simpson III of Louisville, who handled similar claims afterSypher's conviction. Simpson referred to Sypher's case as onemotivated by "sheer greed." Hill notes that Nolan offered no citations in the record orevidence of her claims about her attorney, the judge andprosecutors. Instead, Hill notes, Nolan cites his own filings inthe case initially leveling the charges. Citing one's own filings in an appeal has been rejected by othercourts as "inexcusable," Hill wrote. Hill notes that even defendants filing their own appeals withoutan attorney are required to cite legal authorities to back theirclaims, along with appropriate references to the trial record. "It is not too much to expect that Sypher would provide thisCourt with at least the minimal `ready references' contained" inan appeals brief, Hill wrote. Hill asked the court to give Nolanfour weeks to file a new brief.

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